Aug 16 1984
From The Space Library
NASA launched the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) aboard a three-stage Delta 3294 launch vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. AMPTE consisted of three satellites provided by the United States, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and the United Kingdom. The program was designed to supply knowledge about the transfer of mass from the solar wind to the magnetosphere and its further transport and energization within the magnetosphere.
Initial chemical releases in September by the FRG's Ion Release Module (IRM) would be swept toward Earth's magnetosphere by the solar wind. When the released ions reached the magnetosphere, it was expected that ions would spread out along this boundary region in all directions, but some of the ions would pierce the magnetosphere, as do some of the charged particles of the solar wind. These rare ions would act like a "dye" in the plasma of charged particles.
The maneuverable United Kingdom subsatellite, located in close proximity to the IRM, and the IRM would acquire data from outside the boundary to the magnetosphere while the Charge Composition Explorer, provided by the United States, would study the activity from within the magnetosphere.
A second series of chemical releases in December would create an artificial comet forming inside the bow-shock region but outside of the magnetosphere, directly in the orbital path of Earth. The third series of chemical releases would occur in 1985 behind Earth in the magneto tail.
The three spacecraft would send data to ground stations at NASA's Deep Space Network at JPL, the German Space Operations Center at Oberphaffenhofen, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, England. (NASA MOR E-846-84-01, Aug 2/84; NASA Release 84-109; NY Times, Aug 7/84, C-2)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
